I'm with Kousa--the peony in bloom at the time I'm looking is my absolute favorite! I only have 3 Itoh's that have bloomed so far and my favorite of those is Strawberry Blonde. If you've seen Singing in the Rain SB is very similar to it's mature blooms--much more yellow from the start than Singing. I added quite a few Itohs this year so my favorite will probably change next spring....or maybe not depending on if any of the new ones bloom! I got my first fernleaf peonies this year also, think I'm looking forward most to seeing how those turn out. And as many peonies as I've acquired my list of "look fors" hasn't gotten much smaller! I didn't get pics of my Adelman's order before planting, had to get them in the ground quickly over the weekend among other chores but the roots looked nice. This post was edited by LizinElizabeth on Tue, Dec 3, 13 at 20:54

Those look great GAgal! Sheila, I love your scenic pic of Crep!. We're still on roller coaster weather...was 80 last weekend, but supposed to have lows in the mid 30's this weekend. No hard freeze yet, but lots of stuff in the garden looking tired and ragged these days (including me...lol). Here are a couple of pics of the Mrs R M Finch I received from ARFR earlier this year. I wasn't familiar with the rose, and their website pic didn't really entice me, but my dad's initials were RMF. He's been gone for several years now, and mom still misses him terribly. So thought I would get the rose to grow for mom to enjoy as Mrs RMF (I left off the "inch" in Finch when telling her its name and take her little bouquets of blooms from it often). It has rarely taken a break from blooming since I got it. Here it is in August...2 months after receiving it (summer blooms turn from pink to white quickly): And here is a partial shot I took Monday morning before work (blooms hold their pink for a good while in cool weather):

Great choices sue !! We both have crepuscle and threads & crafts coming :) I hope they do well for us !! I know they advertise " bands" but they are bigger than " gallons " I get from chamblees. Just so people are aware they won't be disappointed when they open their boxes! Will you be potting yours up and protecting them or planting them ?

Perma: Yes, an antique rose is much more than just a rose. It's history, it's romance, it's beauty, it's fragrance, it's science, it's life, it's culture, it's poetry, it's magic. It's a reason to get out of bed in the morning--to look around excitedly to see what bloomed. Like you this is basically my only indulgence. I've been frugal by necessity for decades. This is really the only thing I've done for myself and I don't feel guilty for spending the money. What's stopping me now is I have no sunny space left to put them and I am really pushing it on shade tolerance with many of them already. Ingrid: I agree. I think the future will be worse than those forecasts. Jin: Yes, with money just about anything in the garden is possible. I could spend thousands easily in the garden. Every year! I want to fix my paths and get some flowering plants that are shade tolerant. Maybe a bunch of encore azaleas for starters. I'm eventually going to have to shift my focus to shade gardening because for every square foot of sun I have about 200 square feet in shade. I really wish I could get as worked up over shade plants as I am for antique roses. As an aside, my crape myrtles are all blooming now and they are really beautiful but they do not make my heart go pitter patter like my roses do.